Make gun owners get mandatory insurance

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Photos:Shooting at Oregon community college

Community members attend a candlelight vigil at Stewart Park for those killed during a shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, on Thursday, October 1. The massacre left nine people dead and nine wounded. The gunman also died.

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Photos:Shooting at Oregon community college

In response to the shooting on October 1, President Barack Obama delivers the 15th statement of his presidency addressing gun violence. "Somehow this has become routine," he said. "The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine, the conversation in the aftermath of it. We've become numb to this."

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Photos:Shooting at Oregon community college

Students and faculty are reunited with friends and family at the county fairgrounds on October 1.

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Photos:Shooting at Oregon community college

People wait for information at the fairgrounds on October 1.

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Photos:Shooting at Oregon community college

Hannah Miles, center, is reunited with her sister Hailey and father, Gary, on October 1.

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Photos:Shooting at Oregon community college

A student waits to walk off a school bus at the fairgrounds on October 1.

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Photos:Shooting at Oregon community college

Friends and family are reunited on October 1.

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Photos:Shooting at Oregon community college

A woman is comforted after the deadly shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, on October 1. Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin announced at a news conference that the shooter was dead.

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Authorities secure the campus after the shooting on October 1.

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Photos:Shooting at Oregon community college

Students, staff and faculty leave the school on October 1.

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A bullet casing is marked at the scene of the shooting on October 1.

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People gather at a roadblock near the entrance to the college on October 1.

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Authorities respond after reports of the shooting on October 1.

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Police search students outside the school on October 1.

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A patient is wheeled into the emergency room at Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg on October 1.

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Story highlights

On Monday, an 11-year-old Tennessee boy allegedly shot and killed an 8-year-old girl with his father's gun

Jeff Yang: Getting the insurance industry involved could be a great way to get meaningful gun reform

Jeff Yang is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal Online and contributes frequently to radio shows, including Public Radio International's "The Takeaway" and WNYC's "The Brian Lehrer Show." He is the co-author of "I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action" and editor of the graphic novel anthologies "Secret Identities" and "Shattered." The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN)President Obama said it best: Our reaction to gun massacres has become a routine. It was only a week ago when a gunman killed nine people at Umpqua Community College in Oregon. And yet, the tragedy seems like it has already faded into the distant past.

Photos:Worst mass shootings in the United States

Photos:Worst mass shootings in the United States

Parents wait for news after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday, February 14. At least 17 people were killed at the school, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said. The suspect, 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz, is in custody, the sheriff said. The sheriff said he was expelled for unspecified disciplinary reasons.

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Photos:Worst mass shootings in the United States

Investigators at the scene of a mass shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Sunday, November 5, 2017. A man opened fire inside the small community church, killing at least 25 people and an unborn child. The gunman, 26-year-old Devin Patrick Kelley, was found dead in his vehicle. He was shot in the leg and torso by an armed citizen, and he had a self-inflicted gunshot to the head, authorities said.

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A couple huddles after shots rang out at a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip on Sunday, October 1, 2017. At least 58 people were killed and almost 500 were injured when a gunman opened fire on the crowd. Police said the gunman, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, fired from the Mandalay Bay hotel, several hundred feet southwest of the concert grounds. He was found dead in his hotel room, and authorities believe he killed himself and that he acted alone. It is the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.

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Police direct family members away from the scene of a shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in June 2016. Omar Mateen, 29, opened fire inside the club, killing at least 49 people and injuring more than 50. Police fatally shot Mateen during an operation to free hostages that officials say he was holding at the club.

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In December 2015, two shooters killed 14 people and injured 21 at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, where employees with the county health department were attending a holiday event. The shooters, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik, were later killed in a shootout with authorities. The pair were found to be radicalized extremists who planned the shootings as a terror attack, investigators said.

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Police search students outside Umpqua Community College after a deadly shooting at the school in Roseburg, Oregon, in October 2015. Nine people were killed and at least nine were injured, police said. The gunman, Chris Harper-Mercer, committed suicide after exchanging gunfire with officers, a sheriff said.

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A man kneels across the street from the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, following a shooting in June 2015. Police say the suspect, Dylann Roof, opened fire inside the church, killing nine people. According to police, Roof confessed and told investigators he wanted to start a race war. He was eventually convicted of murder and hate crimes, and a jury recommended the death penalty.

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Police officers walk on a rooftop at the Washington Navy Yard after a shooting rampage in the nation's capital in September 2013. At least 12 people and suspect Aaron Alexis were killed, according to authorities.

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Photos:Worst mass shootings in the United States

Connecticut State Police evacuate Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012. Adam Lanza opened fire in the school, killing 20 children and six adults before killing himself. Police said he also shot and killed his mother in her Newtown home.

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James Holmes pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to a July 2012 shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. Twelve people were killed and dozens were wounded when Holmes opened fire during the midnight premiere of "The Dark Knight Rises." He was sentenced to 12 life terms plus thousands of years in prison.

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A military jury convicted Army Maj. Nidal Hasan of 13 counts of premeditated murder for a November 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas. Thirteen people died and 32 were injured.

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Photos:Worst mass shootings in the United States

Jiverly Wong shot and killed 13 people at the American Civic Association in Binghamton, New York, before turning the gun on himself in April 2009, police said. Four other people were injured at the immigration center shooting. Wong had been taking English classes at the center.

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Photos:Worst mass shootings in the United States

Pallbearers carry a casket of one of Michael McLendon's 10 victims. McLendon shot and killed his mother in her Kingston, Alabama, home, before shooting his aunt, uncle, grandparents and five more people. He shot and killed himself in Samson, Alabama, in March 2009.

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Photos:Worst mass shootings in the United States

Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho went on a shooting spree on the school's campus in April 2007. Cho killed two people at the West Ambler Johnston dormitory and, after chaining the doors closed, killed another 30 at Norris Hall, home to the Engineering Science and Mechanics Department. He wounded an additional 17 people before killing himself.

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Photos:Worst mass shootings in the United States

Mark Barton walked into two Atlanta trading firms and fired shots in July 1999, leaving nine dead and 13 wounded, police said. Hours later, police found Barton at a gas station in Acworth, Georgia, where he pulled a gun and killed himself. The day before, Barton had bludgeoned his wife and his two children in their Stockbridge, Georgia, apartment, police said.

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Eric Harris, left, and Dylan Klebold brought guns and bombs to Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, in April 1999. The students gunned down 13 and wounded 23 before killing themselves.

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In October 1991, George Hennard crashed his pickup through the plate-glass window of Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, before shooting 23 people and committing suicide.

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James Huberty shot and killed 21 people, including children, at a McDonald's in San Ysidro, California, in July 1984. A police sharpshooter killed Huberty an hour after the rampage began.

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Prison guard George Banks is led through the Luzerne County courthouse in 1985. Banks killed 13 people, including five of his children, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in September 1982. He was sentenced to death in 1993 and received a stay of execution in 2004. His death sentence was overturned in 2010.

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Officers in Austin, Texas, carry victims across the University of Texas campus after Charles Joseph Whitman opened fire from the school's tower, killing 16 people and wounding 30 in 1966. Police officers shot and killed Whitman, who had killed his mother and wife earlier in the day.

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Howard Unruh, a World War II veteran, shot and killed 13 of his neighbors in Camden, New Jersey, in 1949. Unruh barricaded himself in his house after the shooting. Police overpowered him the next day. He was ruled criminally insane and committed to a state mental institution.

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Sure, right after the shooting, there was an all-hands-on-deck media scrum to report the horrible news. On social media, people were outraged. As always, there were assertions from gun-reform advocates that the crime could have been prevented if just maybe it was a little bit harder to obtain firearms in this country. As always, there was vehement pushback by Big Gun, declaring that guns are the cure to gun violence, not the cause, that any action to regulate them is tantamount to fascism, and that mental illness or lack of security are to blame for the bloodshed.

Jeff Yang

And then, a few days later, attention moved on to the next media distraction: The latest Kardashian antic, the latest celebrity in rehab, the latest cute animal video.

Discussions about basic and common-sense changes in the way guns are sold, secured and deployed in this country ground once more to a halt -- until next time. But the period between "next times" continues to dwindle. And with each new tragedy it's become clearer that the arguments being utilized by gun-reform advocates are effectively doomed, falling on hard hearts and deaf ears.

And this points the way to an uncomfortable truth about the current strategies used by those seeking reform of lax gun laws.

They're nearly all focused on weapons and users, which makes it easy for the debate to be framed as being about "restriction" and "stripping away rights," when the most powerful motivator for smart, practical regulation of firearms is the protection of victims.

Rethinking gun reform from the victim's perspective not only changes the rhetoric drastically, it also surfaces a powerful hidden ally; one that has been demonstrably effective in helping to enact game-changing legislation in the past despite hysterical, implacable opposition.

That ally is the insurance industry, whose support of Obamacare made all the difference in giving Americans sweeping access to health care for the first time in our nation's history. Without the insurance industry's lobbying, public advocacy and acceptance of disruptive change, Obamacare would have failed like every other attempt to reform our disastrous and doomed health care system.

Yes, the payback for the industry's support of the legislation was significant; unlike most other developed markets in the world, the U.S. has wedded itself to the extraneous costs and chaotic volatility of private, for-profit insurance providers. But given the entrenched, death-before-compromise positioning of the political right, it's clear that no real alternative existed to this market-based structure.

The same is true for gun reform. It is impossible to imagine a scenario tragic and ghastly enough for the American political system to proactively adopt a wise and pragmatic regulation of firearms. (If the killing of 20 elementary students in Sandy Hook didn't sway gun-loving hearts and minds, nothing ever will.) The only recourse is to find a way to provide for the casualties of our national gun fetish.

Legislation that requires mandatory insurance for gun ownership -- liability protection parallel to that required for use and operation of every other dangerous object in our society, from motor vehicles to heavy industrial equipment -- is the answer to that need, giving victims of accident or intentional mayhem compensation for injury (and survivors, for loss of life), as well as a way to cover hospital bills and rehabilitation, and as is too often the case, funeral costs.

From a reform advocate's perspective, getting the insurance industry on the side of sensible gun reform would transform both the narrative of the fight and the resources available to wage it. It means accepting the role of guns in American society, grimly and with heavy heart, but working with determination to ameliorate their impact.

It means making something of a devil's bargain with a business category that's focused on profitability and stock price rather than lost lives and grieving families. But desperate circumstances make for strange bedfellows, and having the megaphone and deep pockets of insurers on the side of reform would make a critical difference.

A legislative foothold already exists for this strategic shift. Earlier this year, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York introduced what she calls the Firearm Risk Protection Act, requiring liability insurance coverage for those seeking to purchase a weapon (with military service members and law enforcement officers exempted), and imposing a fine of $10,000 on those who fail to do so. As Maloney pointed out in a statement, "We require insurance to own a car, but no such requirement exists for guns. The results are clear: car fatalities have declined by 25% in the last decade, but gun fatalities continue to rise."

The reason for the decline in car-related deaths: Auto insurers actively incentivize drivers to behave more safely -- reducing their policy costs for avoiding speeding and reckless operation, and for having vehicles that are practical, properly maintained and safely secured.

It's a market-based way to ensure that firearms owners embrace the duty of ownership along with the right, while also providing compensation for those who are harmed by gun-related accident and abuse. And it's a strategy that the NRA might find some challenges responding to, given that they already offer liability insurance as a service to their members.

The claim that as many people die from cars as firearms each year is one of the most common pieces of rhetoric used by gun advocates to distract from the nation's epidemic of gun-related harm.

It's time for reformers to swallow hard, link arms with the insurance industry and take gun lovers at their word. If cars and guns are equally dangerous, let's treat them in similar fashion -- and ensure that victims across the country, from college students to puppy-loving 8-year-olds, have adequate recourse when they're misused.